Former Vikings contributing to UMFK women’s soccer success

The Caribou girls’ varsity soccer team has been one of the top programs in Class B North the past several seasons.

The Caribou girls’ varsity soccer team has been one of the top programs in Class B North the past several seasons.

Now three former Viking standouts have taken their talents north to contribute to a national caliber college team.

Madison Doucette is beginning her second season with the University of Maine at Fort Kent Bengals and experienced instant success as a freshman with her team capturing a United States Collegiate Athletic Association national championship in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was the team’s fourth consecutive national title.

Now, two of her high school teammates have arrived and also are having an impact.

Like Doucette, Hope Shea and Searra Herbert were all-state players at Caribou High School. The pair graduated in June. Together, the trio has lifted the Bengals to a 5-0-1 record entering their Oct. 8 match against Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

Herbert and Shea are both in the top 25 in the USCAA in scoring through the first six matches. Each has tallied six goals, with Shea also chipping in an assist.

“They are both adjusting very well to the pace of college soccer,” Doucette said of her new teammates. “They have been very involved in plays, have been good additions to the team and are definitely being rewarded for their hard work.”

Herbert, a striker in high school who was one goal away from tying the single-season goals record at Caribou both her junior and senior seasons with 23 both years, plays on the right wing, while Shea is an attacking center midfielder and Doucette is a defensive center midfielder.

Shea played defense most of her high school career and, like Herbert, Doucette was a potent striker and does own a share of the single-season goals mark for the Vikings with 24, so it’s been a change of roles for both players.

“I’m not as offensive as I used to be, but I try to set up the offensive attacks as much as I can,” Doucette said.

She said being teammates again in college has been a special experience.

“It’s so nice to play with Searra and Hope again,” Doucette said, “especially at a higher level because it has forced us to play more tactically and competitively.”

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